Ongoing

Board Meetings

Sunshine Weekly Weeder Newsletter

28 January 2016

Garden Visitor

An older gentleman who is not a gardener has been picking wild plants
from people's plots. If anyone sees him, they should ask him to respect
people's plots and stay on the pathways. He drives a black Chevy Sonic,
license plate DPD-3510.

Common Paths

We have received several complaints about gardens spilling out of
their boundaries into the common paths. To help fix this, we will be
marking the common paths and asking gardeners whose gardens are
blocking the paths to rein in their plots when planting in the spring.
If you have any questions, contact Jim Willman or Jeff Monks.

Special Project Workday Sunday January 31st

There will be a special project workday Sunday 1/31 beginning at
1:30 pm to clean the north greenhouse and clear empty plots. Time
spent cleaning the greenhouse will count as TSBVI hours.

Feed and Cultivate

Early in the month, work in compost and organic fertilizer to
vegetable and flower beds so you'll be ready when the planting
fever hits. In our gardens, we alternate between Revitalizer, Turkey
and Farm Style composts. We also add Garden Pep Cotton Seed Meal,
and a mineral source such as Glittering Greensand or Minerals Plus.

Tomato Garden News

With the beginning of the New Year many of you are probably
contemplating what tomato varieties should you buy at the Sunshine
Community Garden spring plant sale Saturday, March 5th.

The Tomato Garden plot, located near the entrance, was established
to evaluate the production of tomato varieties grown in Central Texas.
Each spring since 2011, eight tomato varieties have been grown in the
tomato garden. Spring of 2016 will be the sixth year of evaluating
tomatoes. The evaluations are designed to determine the yield or
production of each variety. Tomatoes from the garden are donated
to Micah 6 or other food pantries. Since 2011 over 6,500 tomatoes
from the tomato garden have been donated. Of the 37 varieties
evaluated to date, Early Girl, Stupice, and Viva Italia have been the
most prolific producers producing an average of 107, 131, and 164
tomatoes per plant, respectively.

For spring 2015, six plants of eight varieties were planted. Plants
were planted on March 14th. Overall a total of 1,947 tomatoes were
harvested. Below are the varieties grown and the average number of
tomatoes harvested per plant.

Heinz 1350 - average of 40 tomatoes per plant

Italian Gold - average of 42 per plant

Jersey Boy - average of 26 per plant

Jubilee - average of 25 per plant

Pink Berkeley Tie Dye - average of 23 per plant

Santa Clara Canner - average of 12 per plant

Spot Yellow - average of 35 per plant

Stupice - average of 131 per plant

Heinz 1350 and Santa Clara Canner are varieties developed by the
food processing industry. Jersey Boy is a hybrid of Rutgers and
Bradywine producing red globe tomatoes. Spot Yellow and Pink Berkeley
Tie Dye are bi-colored varieties from Wild Boar Farms in California.
Italian Gold is a paste tomato ripening to a yellow/orange color.
Jubilee produces golden, round globe tomatoes. This was the second
time Pink Berkeley Tie Dye has been evaluated. In 2013 the average
yield for Pink Berkeley Tie Dye was 28 tomatoes per plant. This was
also the second time Jubilee has been evaluated. In 2013, the average
yield for Jubilee was 12 tomatoes per plant. Stupice is a heirloom
variety from Czechoslovakia. Stupice is noted as an earlier producer
of tomatoes. Fittingly, the six Stupice plants produced 200 tomatoes,
by May 20th, less than ten weeks after planting. These 200 tomatoes
were 25% of the eventual yield for the plants. None of the other
seven varieties produced over 10% of their eventual yields by this
date (May 20th).

Micah 6 Update

Sunshine Gardens contributes to the Micah 6 food Pantry which helps
the homeless and impoverished in the University of Texas campus area.
In 2015 we contributed 2268 pounds of fresh, organic vegetables. In
the first 2 weeks of January we contributed 71 pounds.

Gardeners may contribute vegetables from their gardens by placing
them, clean as possible, in the cool room or the refrigerator.
Deliveries are being made once a week at present on Saturday morning.
Vegetables need to be ready to deliver by early Friday evening.
Plastic bags and ties are available in the cool room.

Mother Earth News Fair

On February 20th & 21st Mother Earth News will be hosting a Fair
in Belton Texas. The fair will have fun-filled, hands-on, Sustainable
lifestyle events. Find more information on their web site -
http://www.motherearthnewsfair.com/.